The present invention relates generally to the treatment and nutritional support of patients. More specifically, the present invention relates to compositions for use in metabolically stressed patients who need food restriction, but who do not necessarily need increased contents of protein or special nutrients.
Patients suffering from a loss of nutrients require adequate nutritional support. A lack of adequate nutritional support can result in malnutrition associated complications. Thus, the goal of nutritional support is to maintain body mass, provide nitrogen and energy in adequate amounts to support healing, meet metabolic demands characterized by the degree of stress, and support immune function.
A traditional form of nutritional support is administering whole protein liquid feedings to the patient to remedy the protein deficiency. However, some patients requiring nutritional support have a compromised absorptive capacity and thus cannot tolerate whole protein liquid feedings as well as the long-chain fatty acids and complex carbohydrates often present in such whole protein feedings. Many diseases or their consequences can cause malabsorption by impairment of either digestion or absorption. For instance, patients suffering from various types of inflammatory bowel diseases typically cannot tolerate whole protein feedings. As a result, semi-elemental and elemental protein diets were developed to treat such compromised patients.
However, in addition to the traditional inflammatory bowel type patients, semi-elemental and elemental protein diets are currently being used in other patient segments. Specific conditions where these diets are being used include, for example, total parenteral nutrition patients receiving early transitional feedings, acutely ill, and catabolic patients with increased nitrogen needs yet requiring an elemental diet.
Still further, many patients suffering from metabolic stress have a significant need for increased energy but often do not need or tolerate protein levels beyond the normal requirement. Such patients also cannot tolerate the food volume necessary to deliver the energy they need. As a result, such patients need an elemental diet that provides calorically dense nutritional support while at the same time providing moderate non-protein calories per gram of nitrogen. Although a variety of elemental and semi-elemental diets are currently being used in an attempt to treat and/or provide nutritional requirements to such patients, the inventors of the present invention do not believe the needs of the metabolic stressed patients are being adequately met.
Accordingly, a need exists for an enteral nutritional formulation that meets the nutrient requirements of metabolically stressed patients without unnecessarily subjecting such patients to high fluid volume treatments or formulations with increased protein levels.